Past Meetings

 

January 8, 2012 Speaker Teresa Le Yung-Ryan ” Writing Career Make Over with Coach Teresa LeYung Ryan”

 

Coach Teresa chose 3 writers from the audience—representing the 3 umbrella genres (fiction, narrative non-fiction, and prescriptive non-fiction a.k.a. how-to books)—and guided them in this interactive session. Everyone  received Coach Teresa’s “Writing-Career-Make-Over” template.  She’s the author of Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW (a workbook for anyone who has anything to promote—available in print edition and as E-book). As a manuscript consultant, she shows authors how to identify themes and archetypes. Her using her novel Love Made of Heart (to inspire adult children of mentally ill parents to speak openly about the stigmas and find resources for their families) demonstrates the power of making one’s name synonymous with the themes/subject matters/issues one writes about. http://www.WritingCoachTeresa.com  .

 

December 11,2011 Speaker Katherine Ellison ”From the global to the personal: one writer’s journey from investigative reporting to memoir.” 

 

Katherine Ellison is a Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist, former foreign correspondent, writing consultant and author of four books. Her latest book, a new memoir titled Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention(Hyperion Voice), is an engaging and humorous account of life with a high-spirited child, combined with a scrupulously reported journalist’s overview of the controversies surrounding Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and how best to manage it. Hers is an informed and entertaining perspective as both an investigative journalist and a parent of a child diagnosed with ADHD who was diagnosed as having it herself. Ellison’s previous books include “The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes You Smarter,” “The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable,” and “Imelda: Steel Butterfly of the Philippines.” From 1987-99, she was chief of Knight Ridder Newspaper bureaus in Mexico and Rio de Janeiro.

 

 

 November 13, 2011 Speaker was Terri Farley, “Writing a Series isn’t Child’s Play”

Terri Farley, a cowgirl at heart, grew up in Los Angeles, and saved her allowance for rides at nearby stables. Terri’s PHANTOM STALLION series is set in today’s Nevada. WILD HORSE ISLAND takes place on a fictional Hawaiian island and SEVEN TEARS INTO THE SEA weaves the north coast of contemporary California with ancient Celtic legends of the selkie. It was nominated as an ALA best books for young adults. Terri’s fact-based fiction is equal parts investigation and imagination and she doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty. She’s ridden across the Nevada desert in a Pony Express reenactment, spent ten days in the saddle for a Nevada-California cattle drive. Terri has studied wild horses on the Nevada range and acted as a humane observer during BLM helicopter round-ups.  In March 2010, she broke the story that captive mustang foals’ births and deaths were not recorded by BLM. Now a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior, she’s joined in asking a court to order the Bureau of Land Management to obey the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 and return 1,800 mustangs from the Calico Mountains (setting for her PHANTOM STALLION series) to their native lands.  For more information visit her at terrifarley.com

 

October 9, 2011 Speaker was Joan Frank “For My Brothers and Sisters in the Rejection Business.“

After twenty-two years of writing, Joan declares herself rejection’s “longterm mistress,” and that she well knows “all the old roué’s tricks.” She’ll discuss the (often hilarious, often bittersweet) language of rejection letters, the emotions they inspire, and most important, through a few attitudinal tricks, how to take hold of our own development as writers in handling rejection. Joan is the author of four books of fiction, with a fifth, a novel called Make It Stay, slated for publication in early 2012. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, Pushcart Prize nominee, winner of the FOREWORD Book of the Year Award, Richard Sullivan Prize, Dana Award, Michigan Literary Fiction Award, Iowa Writing Award and Emrys Fiction Award, finalist for the 2011 California Book Award, and recipient of grants from several literary foundations. Joan was also named the 2011 Literary Artist of the Year by the Sonoma Arts Council. She has taught Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, and now lives and writes in Santa Rosa. For more info visit Joan’s website here or enter in your browser her website which is www.joanfrank.org

September 11. 2011 Speaker was Joan Price, “What I Learned about Book Publicity after Wasting
$1000 of My Publisher’s Money.”

Author and speaker Joan Price calls herself an “advocate for ageless sexuality.” She has been called other things by the media: “senior sexpert,” “the beautiful face of senior sex,” and—her favorite—“wrinkly sex kitten.” At age sixty-one, Joan wrote Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex After Sixty (Seal Press, 2006) to celebrate the delights of older-life sexuality—especially her spicy love affair with artist Robert Rice, who became her husband. She followed that book up five years later with Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud about Senior Sexafter hundreds of readers sent her questions about improving their own senior sex lives.

Formerly a high school English teacher, Joan is also a fitness professional who believes that exercise should be a treat, not a treatment. She has written several books about health and fitness, including The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book: 300+ Quick and Easy Exercises You Can Do Whenever You Want. Joan teaches popular contemporary line dance classes (which she calls “the most fun you can have with both feet on the floor”) in Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, California. Visit Joan’s website at www.joanprice.com and her zesty blog about sex and aging at www.NakedAtOurAge.com.

August 14, 2011 Speaker was Linda Joy Myers

July 10, 2011

Congratulations to our Published Authors 2011!
At this meeting we will hold our annual Author Launch Celebration.

June 12, 2011 Speaker was Mark Coker, ”Find Your Audience by Using 21st Century Technology”.

The founder, CEO and Chief Author Advocate of Smashwords, Smashwords.com he will talk about ebooks and the future of publishing. Mark founded Smashwords to change the way books are published, sampled, marketed and sold. Mark is co-author along with his wife, Lesleyann, of Boob Tube, a novel that explores the behind-the-scenes world of daytime television soap operas. It was Mark’s frustration trying to get Boob Tube published that inspired him to start Smashwords. He believes Smashwords holds the promise to make publishing more enriching for authors, readers and publishers.

For Smashwords updates, follow Mark on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/markcoker

 

May 15, 2011 Speaker was Persia Woolley, ”How Many Times Can You Publish a Book? or Keep Track of Those Rights!”

RW member, Persia’s  presentation recounted her experiences both in the reselling of her Guinevere Trilogy and in the delights and disasters of creating her own CD, MP3 and/or eBook from one book which was originally published in traditional format. ”It’s a second harvest that never used to be available to us, and not something to be overlooked,” she points out. These books (Child of the Northern Spring, Queen of the Summer Starsand Guinevere–the Legend in Autumn) were originally published in 1987, 1990 and 1991 by Poseidon Press, a division of Simon and Schuster. 

By the mid-’90′s Poseidon Press claimed her Trilogy was out of print, and at the end of the ’90′s she was able to get a ‘rights reversion’ letter on each. In 2008 Sourcebooks tracked her down through her membership in RWC and offered her a contract for re-issuing the Trilogy. She decided to get the rights to her “How To Write and Sell Historical Fiction” back from Writer’s Digest Books who had published it in 1997.  Since then she has produced her own CD of that work, and is about to release it as an e-book and in pod cast form as well as a CD.

April 10, 2011 Speaker was Pamela Gray, ”Having Conviction:  A Screenwriter’s Survival Guide”
Pamela Gray will talk about the joys (sometimes) and challenges (always) of life as a professional screenwriter, the craft of screenwriting, and the exhilarating journey from script to screen. Pamela Gray wrote the screenplay for CONVICTION, starring Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell, which had Gala Premieres at both the 2010 Toronto and London Film Festivals, was the opening night film at the Mill Valley Film Festival, and was chosen Best Picture at the Boston Film Festival.  Pamela’s other credits include MUSIC OF THE HEART, which earned Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination,  and a WALK ON THE MOON, which stars Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen, and was named #9 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the “50 Sexiest Movies of All Time.”

March 13, 2011 Speaker was Ransom Stephens, ”The God Patent and the Future of Publishing: Secrets from the first debut novel to emerge from the new paradigm of publishing”

February 13, 2011 Speaker was Matthew Gollub, “Earning a Living (No, really!) as a Children’s Book-Author Publisher“

Matthew Gollub is a multitalented children’s author whose numerous works have garnered dozens of national awards and distinctions. As an author/publisher, he has created 15 picture books which together have garnered 25 national awards and distinctions. Having started his career as a “typical” author, publishing works through large commercial houses in New York, he later gravitated toward smaller publishers before founding his own company, Tortuga Press, in Santa Rosa. He speaks English, Spanish and Japanese, all of which have helped him collaborate closely with illustrators from around the U.S. and abroad. Currently, Matthew’s most popular books feature his rhythmic, musical narrations on audio CD which he packages with his illustrated picture books. Favorite titles include The Jazz Fly, Jazz Fly 2: The Jungle Pachanga; and Gobble, Quack, Moon. (Slide shows, video clips and audio clips of his books at www.matthewgollub.com).

 

January 9th, 2011 Speaker was Patricia V. Davis “So, How’s Your Book Doing?”

This talk is a condensed version of an eight hour seminar given by Patricia that covers everything from publication of your work, to getting reviews, to branding yourself, to blogging for sales, to getting your book into bookshops.

Patricia V. Davis is the author of the award-winning, Harlot’s Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss, and Greece, and the upcoming “The Diva Doctrine: From an Older Woman to a Younger One,” which will be published by Cedar Fort Press Spring 2011. For more information about Patricia, visit her website at www.patriciaVdavis.com. and www.harlotssauce.com

December 12, 2010 Speaker was Becky Levine ”The Power of a Strong Critique: Digging Deep for Constructive, Respectful Feedback”

In this workshop, Becky Levine, author of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, will talk about what makes a strong, truly helpful critique. She’ll talk about a sandwich critique and show how to break down the “filling” of the sandwich into focused, concrete feedback that will help grow your critique partners’ writing and your own. Click here fore more information.

 

November 14, 2010 Speaker was Norman Solomon “Writers in Our Time of Turmoil”

As the author of a dozen books and countless articles, Norman will share his thoughts on dilemmas and opportunities for writers in this era. He’ll discuss a range of factors that affect the writing experience, from personal needs and techniques to the marketplace and broader socio-economic forces.

His latest book is Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State (2007).

A collection of Solomon’s columns won the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. The award, presented by the National Council of Teachers of English, honored Solomon’s book “The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media.” Visit his website for more information.

 

October 10, 2010 Speaker was Kamran Pasha, screenwriter and novelist, speaking about his experiences with Hollywood’s film industry as well as New York publishing.

Kamran Pasha is a screenwriter and director, and is one of the first Muslims to succeed in Hollywood.  Kamran currently works as Co-Executive Producer and head writer for Disney’s new Tron animated television series.  Kamran also recently sold his first television pilot, entitled Enigma, to Warner Brothers.  Previously he served as a writer and producer for NBC’s television series Kings. He is currently writing an epic film entitled The Voyage Of Ibn Battuta, which follows the adventures of the famous Arab traveler who journeyed to China in the 14th century.  This feature is being financed by the Moroccan government and produced by French production company Forecast Pictures.

September 12, 2010 Speaker was Donna Levin “Where Did I Go Wrong? Query Letters that Turn them Off – or    On”

She has two published novels: Extraordinary Means (William Morrow), andCalifornia Street (Simon & Schuster), as well as two books about writing, Get that Novel Started and Get that Novel Written, both with Writer’s Digest Books.  Both of her novels were optioned for film, and Get that Novel Written was translated into Italian and published by Dino Audino Editore.

After introducing some of her students and others to her own literary agent, Donna went on to work in the agency herself for two years.  She has also been a frequent guest at writers’ conferences, including the San Francisco Writers’ Conference, the East of Eden Conference and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, in her capacity both as author and agent.

August 8, 2010  peaker was Gordon Burgett “How to Get Your Book Published Free in Minutes and Marketed Worldwide in Days”

Gordon will explain the easy seven-step process that can quickly make you a proud published author, with a book to prove it. A book that your friends, family, and potential fans can buy at bookstores, on the web, through Amazon.com, or even directly from you, if you wish.

It’s a new publishing world, new technology, new business models for publishers. Eager to take part? Gordon will explain the few new steps you need to know to dance the new dance—in print! Visit his website.